David Valle-Garcia studies the role of histone and RNA epigenetic modifications in brain aging and neurological disorders. He leverages bioinformatics and molecular biology tools to investigate epigenetic regulation in glioblastoma, Alzheimer's disease, and anxiety. Passionate about precision medicine, he develops RNA-based diagnostics for early detection of neurological disorders. As part of the neuroimmunology research group, he collaborates across disciplines and institutions to advance our understanding and applications of neuroepigenetics.
Verónica Pérez de la Cruz received a bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Biological Chemistry as well as a master’s degree in Biological Science from the UNAM and a PhD in Experimental Biology from the UAM-I. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Robert Schwarcz at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore, and founded the Neurobiochemistry and Behavior Lab at the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Mexico. Over the past 10 years, she has been focused on the kynurenine pathway and redox modulation. Her group described redox properties of kynurenine pathway metabolites, new routes of kynurenic acid production, and their effects on brain tissue exposed to different pro-oxidants. More recently, she turned her attention to the relationship between kynurenines and cognitive impairment induced by heavy metals exposure, showing that kynurenic acid is involved in this paradigm and, now, she is looking to modulate its production to improve cognitive impairment.
Benjamín Pineda is a Chemical Bacteriologist and Parasitologist from the National School of Biological Sciences, IPN (2000). He has a master's degree and a doctorate with a specialty in Immunology. He completed his postdoctoral stay at the Brain Tumor Center of the University of Chicago in 2009. Currently, he is a researcher in Medical Sciences “E” at the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery and is a member of the National System of Researchers level 3. His research work on the modulation of the antitumor immune response and the microenvironment of brain tumors has led him to propose various molecules with antitumor potential or modulation of the antitumor immune response, among them are those extracted from various vegetables, such as extract of hops, garlic, and Calophyllum Brasiliense. At the same time, he has carried out various studies on the impact of tryptophan catabolism on the modulation of the microenvironment of tumors of the central nervous system and how its metabolites impact the antitumor immune response. He has also designed and tested carbon nanostructures for the elimination of tumor cells in situ or as nanocarriers for various chemotherapeutics. His performance has allowed him to develop and patent an IgY immunotoxin against CD133 + carcinogenic stem cells, as well as developing an antitumor vaccine based on microvesicles from irradiated tumor cells for the treatment of various neoplasms.
Karla F Meza-Sosa received her Bachelor’s degree and her Ph.D. from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 2008 and 2015, respectively. She was working on postdoctoral research “Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine” at Harvard Medical School from 2015 to 2019. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery Manuel Velasco Suárez (INNNMVS). She is interested in the molecular mechanisms involved in neurogenesis, glioblastoma progression, and brain lateralization. She is particularly interested in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression by non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), specifically microRNAs (miRNAs) and long-non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Recently, her interest is in studying the potential of ncRNAs to achieve more precise medicine, including their use as prognostic and therapeutic tools within the central nervous system (CNS).
